Not wanting power to mitigate and swage, With solemn touches, troubled thoughts, and chase Anguish and doubt and fear and sorrow and pain From mortal or immortal minds.[3] And there are Chichonas also, which consist of a few conceited notes in a grave kind of humour; these are the Chapters which the Honourable Fastidious Feeblewit condemns as being in bad taste, and which Lord Makemotion Ganderman pronounces poor stuff; but at which Yorickson smiles, Macswift's countenance brightens, and Fitzrabelais laughs outright. [Footnote 2: MARSTON.] [Footnote 3: MILTON.] No prophecies can be expected to go upon all fours; and nothing in this opus corresponds to Master Mace's Toys, or Jiggs, which are “light, squibbish things, only fit for fantastical and easy light-headed people;” nor to his common Tunes. Last in his enumeration is the Ground: this, he says, is “a set number of slow notes, very grave and stately; which, after it is expressed once or twice very plainly, then he that hath good brains and a good hand, undertakes to play several divisions upon it, time after time, till he has shewed his bravery, both of invention and execution.” My worthy friend Dr. Dense can need no hint to make him perceive how happily this applies to the ground of the present work, and the manner of treating it. And if Mr. Dulman disputes the application, it can only be because he is determined not to see it. All his family are remarkable for obstinacy. And here taking leave for awhile of the good old lutanist, I invite the serious and the curious to another Pavine among the stars. CHAPTER XCV. WHEREIN MENTION IS MADE OF LORD BYRON, RONSARD, RABBI KAPOL AND CO. IT IS SUGGESTED THAT A MODE OF READING THE STARS HAS BEEN APPLIED TO THE RECOVERY OF OBLITERATED ROMAN INSCRIPTIONS; AND IT IS SHOWN THAT A MATHEMATICIAN MAY REASON MATHEMATICALLY, AND YET LIKE A FOOL. Thus may ye behold This man is very bold, And in his learning old Intendeth for to sit. I blame him not a whit; For it would vex his wit, And clean against his earning To follow such learning As now a-days is taught. DOCTOUR DOUBBLE-ALE. Lord Byron calls the Stars the poetry of heaven, haying perhaps in mind, Ben Jonson's expression concerning bell-ringing. Ronsard calls them the characters of the sky: _—Alors que Vesper vient embrunir nos yeux, Attaché dans le ciel je contemple les cieux, En qui Dieu nous escrit, en notes non obscures, Les sorts et les destins de toutes creatures. Car luy, en desdaignant (comme font les humains) D'avoir encre et papier et plume entre les mains, Par les astres du ciel, qui sont ses caracteres, Les choses nous predit et bonnes et contraires. Mais les hommes, chargez de terres et du trespas, Meprisent tel escrit, et ne le lisent pas._